Life After Death/Original/Chapter 5
The road was quiet; peaceful. There was nary a zombie or person in sight. It was a fairly cold evening, the cool breeze blowing lightly in the darkening, cloudy sky. There were small breaks in the clouds, where the purple-red sky from the sunset could be seen. The silence was soon disrupted as the sound of a car barrelling down the road filled the air. The SUV drove down the highway, passing numerous dead bodies, both zombie and human. After a minute or two, it made a sharp right through a gate and into the suburb. It drove down the road, and made another right. It stopped in front of a house. "Everyone get out," Jack said, as he took the keys out of the ignition and opened his door. Zain, Devon, and Bill did the same, and the four walked into the house. "All right, you guys know the plan. We get in, grab whatever is in there; food, guns, ammo, blankets, clothes, whatever. Anything that will help us out. Once we have got everything, or as much as we can carry, we scoot, before nightfall. I don't want to be out in the dark when those fuckers come out of hiding. Got it?" The three other men all said "yes". "Good. Now, let's go." Jack tried to open the door, but it was locked. "Oh, for fuck sakes. Someone could have grabbed the keys. Ugh!" Jack stepped back, and kicked the door as hard as he could, and it slammed to the ground. "Yeah..." Devon said. "We didn't exactly put the door back up well." The four went inside and stood in the living room. "Alright," Jack said. "Zain, you check the kitchen. Devon, check the bathroom. Bill, the bedrooms. I will take whatever I can from in here." The four scattered, and began scavenging for supplies. Jack grabbed a bag of canned goods from the living room, the same that Devon, Bill, Pete, and Tina had used a month before. He grabbed a bolt-action rifle and a half-empty box of bullets for it from behind a couch. He went to the front closet and pulled out two jackets, a hoodie, a couple toques, and a couple pairs of gloves and threw them in the bag of canned goods. Zain opened the fridge in the kitchen and grabbed two large bottles of water, and some vegetables. He opened up a squeaky cupboard and found some garbage bags. He grabbed one, opened it up, and put the supplies inside. He opened the freezer and found two bags of bread and a bag of ice. In the cupboards, Zain found several more cans of food, as well as bags of insant noodle soup. He grabbed it all and put it inside the bag. He grabbed a few bowls, plates, pots, forks, spoons, and knives from various cupboards and drawers and put them inside, as well. In the bathroom, Devon grabbed various bottles of soap, shampoo, and conditioner, as well as as many towels as he could carry. He threw them on the ground, and opened up the cupboard under the sink, where he found an empty toiletries bag. He put the bottles inside, as well as some bars of soap, deoderant, cologne, a razor, and two toothbrushes inside. He closed the bag up and stacked the towels on top, and left. Bill pulled blankets, sheets, and pillows off of the bed in the master bedroom. He tried rolling them up, but it was hard to carry them. He looked over and saw a black bag through the open sliver in the closet, and opened the doors. He pulled it out, and stuffed the blankets inside. He zipped it up, and carried it and the pillows into the hallway. Bill dropped the stuff on the ground, and continued into the guest bedroom, where he did the same. Luckily, there weren't as many blankets or pillows, so he could carry them easier. Once he had dropped them in the hallway, he hurried back into the closet of the master bedroom, and pulled down a colorful variety of shirts, pants, and sweaters. He checked the guest closet, but there were no clothes. Bill went back into the hallway and gathered all his things. He had a tough time trying to carry it all, but just then, Devon walked out of the bathroom. "Dev, little help?" Bill asked. Devon ran over and grabbed the pillows off the ground, and the two continued into the living room, where they found Bill and Zain, with all their stuff bagged up. "Man, that was fast," Zain pointed out. "We've been in here for like, five minutes." "Having four people helps," Jack said in response. "You two are a good team. I'm definitely considering letting you join, now. But, first, I have one more job." "What now?" Bill said in disappoinment. "I know you want to get back, but, it's still fairly light out. I want to go check a place in the city. I'm pretty sure it's one of the few untouched places in there." "Where, a library?" "Haha, no, not quite. You'll see when we get there. Come on, let's get outta here." The four men left the house, and approached the SUV. They felt the chill of the wind, once more. Jack opened up the trunk, and they threw their supplies in, and got inside. Jack backed out, and drove back onto the highway. About twenty minutes passed, and Jack pulled in to a small liquor store, and they all got out. "Alright, boys," he said. "For your quick, hard work today, I would like to treat you three to a nice bottle of beer. Or wine, if you are a pussy." Bill looked ad Devon with a grin, and Devon gave him an evil look. "Shall we?" Jack held the door open, and the four went inside. It was dark, but Jack had grabbed a flashlight from the SUV and turned it on. He went over to a shelf, and started searching. "Okay. So, what do you boys like? Brandy? Whiskey? Vodka? How about some classic rum? Man, this place used to be my favourite place to buy beer. Always so much to choose from. Heather was always complaining about how I took so long here, but there's just so much to choose..." Jack was too distracted in his ramble about booze to hear the zombie approaching him from behind. In the blink of an eye, the zombie lunged and tackled Jack to the ground. He was pinned, and couldn't reach his gun, and started screaming for help. He was no longer holding his flashlight, and his screams were echoing, so nobody could find where he was. Devon searched around with his gun out, until he found the flashlight. He held it up, and shone it all over the store, until he saw Jack. He pointed his gun, and fired. Boom. Jack stopped screaming, and started panting. He looked over, and say a faint image of Devon holding his gun out. He ran over and pulled the zombie off Jack, and held his hand out. Jack grabbed it, and got up. "Holy fuck," Jack said while breathing deeply. "Thanks, man. I...I almost died..." "Yeah," Devon replied. "No problem." Zain and Bill came up from behind. "Is Jack okay?" Zain asked in a panic. "Was he bit?" "I'm fine," Jack assured him. "Devon saved my life...now. About that drink..." Jack took the flashlight from Devon, and shone it back on the shelf. He pulled down a bottle of rum, and went to the counter. He leaned down and pulled out four glasses from a shelf under the counter, and opened up the bottle. "This place let people have taste tests. Could it get any better?" He poured a bit of rum into every glass, and walked over to the front doors. He grabbed a bottle of Coca-Cola from a shelf, and filled up each glass with it. "Classic rum and coke." He handed everyone a glass, and they went and sat on the floor and started to drink. "Heather hated my drinking. She always said I was so aggresive when I was drunk. She was right, but I did it to escape my horrible life. My job was terrible; I was the manager of a McDonald's. Can you fucking believe that? I made quite a bit of money, but every fucking day I had to deal with bitchy customers and whiny, teenage employees crying when I took their phones for texting on the job. Thinking back, I seriously wonder why I didn't just quit...Life at home wasn't much better. Heather was always complaining about every thing I did. Charlie acted like he hated me half the time, and the other half he was sucking up to get what he wanted. And David...David was always out with friends. He was the nice, responsible guy. Never drank when he was with friends, always did what he was told. It...it really pissed me off. For twenty years, I've had to deal with a perfect son. I wanted to have a son who challenged me, tried to argue with me. Charlie doesn't even do that...he just ignores me..." Jack took a swig of his drink, while everyone stared at him in awkward silence. "How about you, Bill. What did you do before this?" "Nothing really," Bill replied. "I had a job at a grocery store, but it was boring. My life was basically just smoking dope with Devon." "I'm guessing you didn't do much either, then, Devon?" "Nope," Devon admitted. "Same as Bill, except I didn't have a job. I worked at a gas station, but that was years ago." "What about you, Zain? You've been in my group for a month and I hardly know about your life. Share." "Well, I was a gym teacher," Zain told them. "No kidding?" "Nope. It wasn't all that great. Pretty basic; exactly what the job says. I told a bunch of teenagers to go play dodgeball or floor hockey and they do it. It was pretty boring most days." "So, basically, all of our lives sucked? Well, I feel like I know you all a little bit better now. Looks like we are staying here for the night. Devon, Bill, when we get back, I'd like you two to know you are fully welcome in our group. After saving my life, I can't exactly say no, can I?" "What about Pete?" Devon asked. "As long as he did something productive, he can stay too. Now, we should get to sleep. Don't want to keep everyone worrying tomorrow. I'll go grab some blankets from the car." Jack went out and opened up the trunk of the SUV. He pulled out four blankets and four pillows, and closed the trunk. He locked it all up, and went back into the liquor store. However, in the distance behind the store, was a hoard of zombies quickly approaching it. Credits *Devon Brandt *Bill Rooney *Zain Ralph *Jack Kappick Deaths *None Trivia *This is the first chapter to not introduce a new character. Category:Hippo